Be a little flirty
by BethanyKatherine
Summary: He's your best guy friend. Is it possible you...like him? No! Well...maybe just a little...think about it, be a little, dare I say, flirty? I know...but it's the only way!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: don't own, so don't sue…

_you are perfect/ and i want you_

_do you know me/ do you want me too?_

_i'll be your princess/ you be my prince_

_i know you'll love me/ if you give me a chance_

_we should get together_

_we were made for each other_

_we can't wait another minute_

_come on, let's get to it_

_baby, let's be us!_

_when i see you_

_i admit i'm caught off guard_

_when you're near me_

_how is talking so hard?_

_when you're with me_

_does this happen to you too?_

_don't know what we can do_

_i just know…i want you!_

Hannah Montana looked out at the screaming audience and waved at them: "How's everybody doing tonight?" They responded by cheering louder, and she smiled and laughed. "Sounds good to me! Let's get to it!"

People got audibly excited at the segue and music cues to her newest song.

"_Can't wait another minute, come on, let's get to it_," Hannah sang, getting into it, "_baby–let's be us_!" She smiled out at the crowd, and just as she sang, "_when I see you_" she caught a glimpse of someone she thought she recognized. She gaped out into the crowd–Oliver? No way, he was home studying for the huge math test they had the next day–right? Of course he was.

But no matter how many times she asserted to herself that it wasn't Oliver sitting out there watching her–waiting, along with the rest of the audience for her to keep singing–OH!

"_Why is talking so hard_?"

In the end, the audience thought her mid-verse freeze-up was part of the act. How could they know, Miley thought later as she packed up in her dressing room and prepared to head home, that what they had actually witnessed was Hannah's every thought flying out of her head except for: "Oliver came to see my show? _Oliver_ came to see my show?" Not even she herself could identify the importance of this, however.

The next day at school she was silent and jumpy.

"Hey." She spun around quickly, eyes wide with surprise.

"Whoa," Lilly said, taking a step back, "Settle down."

"Sorry," Miley said. "Hey, I have a strange question to ask you…"

"Hmm, I'm intrigued," Oliver interrupted, sidling up to them. Miley gave him a look, planted a hand on his chest, and pushed him several feet away down the hall.

"Lilly this is a top secret question, no repeating what I'm about to ask–okay?"

"Of course! Now tell me–the suspense is torture!"

"Was Oliver at my concert last night?"

"What!" Lilly exclaimed, shocked. "Was he—"

"Shh!" Miley hissed. "Quiet! Top secret! Mucho silencio! Was he?"

"It was an hour away!"

"Lilly! _Was he?_"

"No," she replied, still dumbfounded, "he was home studying." She adopted a sly look. "Why do _you_ want to know?"

"That's just it, Lilly, I _don't_ know why I want to know. I saw someone who looked just like him last night and I completely froze up on stage! It was so weird! I mean it's just not possible that I—"

"Are you two done being secretive yet?" Oliver whined from down the hall. "I'm getting bored over here."

"Silence, fool!" Lilly commanded. We're having a very important discussion over _here_, so quit your whining, and we'll see you in class—bye!"

He raised his palms in the air as if to say "Girls—just leave them to their strange ways" and left for class.

"Miley, "Lilly pressed, "do you think you might—" she hesitated "—_like_ him?"

"No!" she answered. After a moment, "Well, maybe…"

"Oh my gosh, this changes everything, this is _huge_—!"

"Ahh! Stop—settle! I didn't say I was in love with him, I was just speculating that I perhaps have non-friends-only feelings for him—is that so huge?"

"Miley, it's—" Lilly stopped short as a hand clamped over her mouth. "Sorry—it's Oliver—" she continued in a whisper "—he's your best guy friend—you have to know what you're doing."

Miley was silent for a moment. "That's what worries me. If I do like him, how will this change things? Between us, between all of us?" She was pacing.

"Alright, alright. Stop your pacing, Lilly the Amazing knows what to do. When we're all together, just watch him, see how that makes you feel. In conversation, see if you can be a bit flirty with him—" Miley donned a skeptical expression—"I know, me too, but it's the only way!" She added helpfully, "And remember, you have me, your trusted best friend, by your side…eager to hear all details!"

The final bell rang and they squealed and ran to class.


	2. Chapter 2

In math the tests were being passed out. Miley wished she'd been able to study more instead of having to perform a concert as her pop-star alter ego. She felt a sinking sense of dread—how would she ever manage a passing grade? She glanced over at Oliver, who, looking surprised to see her staring at him, gave her a smile and a reassuring thumbs-up. She smiled back and looked down at her desk, curiously aware of her warm face. Fortunately, she was concentrating more on Oliver than on her anxiety for the majority of the test.

"How do you think that went?" Oliver asked the two girls as they left class.

"I don't know," Miley began. Lilly gave her a significant look. "It was probably super easy for someone as smart as you, though, Oliver," she added, smiling sweetly.

"Aw, are you kidding? I was sweating so bad throughout the whole thing—I felt so unprepared!"

"Wow, Oliver, how _un-_alluring," Lilly commented, smirking and making eyes at Miley.

"What?" he asked, as both girls tried to conceal their laughter, unsuccessfully.

"Come on, let's go get lunch," Miley said, taking his arm and steering him towards the door.

"So," Lilly asked as they sat down together to eat, "any plans this weekend?"

"You know me, a million parties to go to," Oliver joked.

Miley groaned and put her head down on the table.

"What?" Oliver said. "I was just kidding—there are no parties! We're hanging out as usual, right?"

"No," Miley said. "That's just it. I just remembered that I have a huge concert tomorrow night."

"No big deal," Lilly said, "we can all hang out Saturday night instead." Oliver nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me!"

♥♥♥

Later that day Lilly pulled Miley aside. "So? How goes _the plan_?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I mean, I really like being around him, and he always makes me smile…sometimes because I'm laughing at him…but still—I don't know!"

"Well," Lilly pressed, "keep going. Maybe you'll have your answer by the end of the day."

"Thanks," Miley told her. "And remember—Top secret!"

♥♥♥

"Lilly, I have to talk to you," Oliver said urgently.

Lilly jumped and whirled around. "Geez, you creeper, what are you doing sneaking around like that?"

"Never mind, you have to tell me—does Miley like me?"

The words "top secret" echoed in Lilly's head.

"Well sure, she likes the both of us a lot—she's just so dang friendly—an admirable trait of the Southern!"

"No, I don't mean in a friends way, I mean…the other way…"

Lilly hesitated. It could be so easy! She would tell Oliver yes, he would ask Miley out—and Voilà! The world would be a better place for loooove.

But wait! What if it turned out that Miley didn't like him _that way_? What a disaster! She'd turn him down and he'd be heartbroken—and angry!

Or _what_ if Miley _did_ like him and Lilly told him so—but Oliver didn't even like her?

She realized she would need feeling confirmation on both ends before any further matchmaking.

"I don't know for sure, Ollie-boy," she decided on. "You'd have to ask her yourself." She stopped him as he began to walk away and added hastily, "Ahh, but that would be awkward and tactless. Instead," she thought quickly aloud, "try watching her, see how you feel, be a little—dare I say, flirtatious—see what happens."

Oliver looked skeptical, but he nodded in agreement, thanked her, and left for class.

"I'm a genius!" she applauded herself, before, too, going to class.


	3. Chapter 3

Oliver watched as Miley walked in the door. Maybe Lilly had a point. She was walking towards him. Inexplicably, he leapt to his feet.

"Miss Miley, how fare thee?"

She smirked at him. "Very well, Squire, and thee-self?" She took a seat next to him and arranged her books. She thought for a moment and then dropped her pencil.

"Oops! Would you get that for me?"

"With pleasure," he answered, placing it in her hand. Miley smiled—a lot. She was having great trouble _not_ smiling around him…her face was hurting!

"Thanks," she said, trying to sound flirty.

"So, excited for tomorrow night?"

"Oh my gosh, I mean, yes, of course, right? But I wish I could hang out with you guys instead!"

"Yeah me too—but you'll be great, don't worry about it. You're always great."

"Aw, thanks, bud."

An awkward silence fell between them.

"Sssoo…what movie should we see Saturday?" Miley finally asked.

"I don't know…something…well, not too girly, maybe some adventure, some action, maybe some girly as long as there's action…" He grinned as she hit him playfully.

"I'm only human," he said dramatically.

"No, you're a boy," Miley countered. "But this," she said, mimicking his dramatics, "is why I love you."

Matching looks of shock and horror appeared on their faces, and when Lilly appeared they cried in unison and relief, "LILLY!"

♥♥♥

"I don't know what happened! We were talking, I was trying to flirt, he was, well I don't know if he was just playing along or what, but I thought we were fine—and all of the sudden I blurted out that I love him! Like, what?"

Lilly stared thoughtfully. "Hmm, hmm, interesting, yes. Tell me, were you trying to completely freak him out and cause his brain to explode, or what?"

"No, of course not!"

"You _know_ you're not supposed to talk to boys about your feelings! Major no-no! They can't deal with it—they can't function."

"Do you really think I freaked him out?" Miley said, face in hands.

"_Yes_!" Lilly said automatically. "But it might not be so bad," she amended as Miley glared at her. "Should I talk to him and see?"

"Yes. No! Well…maybe…just pretend you don't know anything about the conversation and ask him all innocent-like. Find out what he's thinking."

"Perfect. Will do." And she rushed off.

♥♥♥

"Hey, I got your message, what's up?"

"OHMYGOSH, Lilly, _she's in love with me_!"

Oliver sounded panicky—which was nothing to how he looked.

"What? Really?" She hoped she sounded surprised and uninformed.

"Yeah, we were just talking, I don't even know about what, and she just blurted it out!"

"Well, what do you think about that?" she asked vaguely.

"I mean, I don't know. What am I supposed to think?" he said distractedly.

"Well, generally, when someone tells you they love you, you decide whether or not you love them back."

He stared blankly. "Huh?"

"Oliver! Do ya like the girl?"

"Yes!" he blurted. "I mean, yeah, yes, I do."

"Well, now we have something to work with," she said cryptically. "What are you up to tomorrow night?"

"I told you, all the parties, right?"

"Yeah, well, you'll have to forget those parties—we have plans."

♥♥♥

"Hello, is this Robby Ray? Hi, this is Lilly, Miley's friend. I was wondering if you happen to have tickets to Hannah's concert tomorrow night. You do? Two? Perfect, thanks!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Well, did you talk to him?" Miley accosted Lilly at school the next morning two seconds after she'd stepped inside.

"I did, I did."

"_What did he say_?"

"Well, he was shocked, to say the least. So I wouldn't be springing any more surprises on him any time soon…"

"Lilly…" Miley said warningly.

"Alright, alright…he thinks you're a cool girl, in my opinion he likes you, but you might want to confirm that with him in a non-blurty, non-creepy way."

Miley nodded in agreement, looking thoughtful. "So where is he?"

"Ortho appointment at 10—he gets to sleep in! Lucky. I guess we'll see him this afternoon."

"Oh no!"

"What now?"

"I have to leave early—right after lunch—to test the sound stage and everything."

"Oh darn, you won't get to embarrass yourself in front of him again."

Miley gave her a look, but they both started laughing

♥♥♥

"Come on, hurry up, Oliver!"

"_What_ is the rush?"

"I'll tell you when we get there—it's kind of a huge surprise." She picked up their tickets at will call and then dragged Oliver into the auditorium.

"What concert are we at?" he asked, bewildered.

"Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, HANNAH MONTANA!" The music cued and the crowd roared.

"We're at Hannah's concert?" Oliver demanded, incredulous.

"Shh! Yelling time is later. Now it's fun time!" Lilly declared, jumping up and down and dancing to the music. Oliver shook his head, but soon was also dancing like a fool, just like everyone else around them.

From time to time, Lilly would glace over at Oliver, only to see his face alight with joy and excitement—he was having a great time! And he hadn't stopped staring at Miley all night! Granted, most people in the audience were staring at her, but Lilly decided that it was probably more significant in Oliver's case.

And if all went according to plan, things would continue progressing very nicely…

Near the end of the night, Lilly unfolded a poster-board from her pocket and held it high above her head. She hoped Hannah could read it.

♥♥♥

Hannah was talking to the audience, when all of the sudden she noticed a large white sign bobbing over the heads of the people before her. She squinted to read it:

MILEY!

It's OLIVER

▼▼▼

Her mouth fell open: Lilly was here? With OLIVER?

"Umm…hey, y'all, I just remembered that I'm supposed to announce the winner of the…uh, raffle…um, he's a very nice guy, I met him earlier at the meet and greet. Give it up for my new friend, Oliver Oken! Where are you, Oliver? Get on up here!"

Oliver whirled at Lilly.

"What's going on here? Are you in on this?"

"No!" Lilly looked positively thrilled, but just as surprised, at this turn of events. "But I wish!" Then she gave Oliver a shove out into the aisle: "Come on, you heard the girl, get on up there!"

Oliver stumbled down the aisle and began his journey up to the stage.

She waved to him and he waved weakly back as he squinted into the bright lights and walked out to center stage to meet her.

"Hey there, Oliver!" she said, quickly hugging him. "It's great to see you again!" He nodded meekly, suddenly very aware of his stage fright.

Hannah was wondering what to say when she heard someone from the crowd yell, "KISS!"

"Oliver lives here in Malibu, in a lovely home near the beach—" she began loudly, hoping to cut the cheers off at the bud, but nothing doing. Soon the whole audience was chanting, "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" Lilly, loudly, among them.

Hannah looked warily at her shell-shocked best friend. "Well?" she asked tentatively.

He was silent for a pensive moment. Finally he said, "Well, we'd better give the public what they want."

They grinned nervously at each other and then Hannah went in for the kill.

The hall erupted in cheers, Lilly screamed, Robby Ray was signaling frantically from the eaves, and Hannah and Oliver were smiling awkwardly at each other.

"Well, you'd better head on backstage now and collect your, uh, raffle prize. You can meet your friend back there." He nodded dazedly and happily at her and skidded off the stage.

"What the sam hill was that?" Robby Ray demanded.

"Sir, I swear, I was not at all involved," Oliver answered quickly.

"Like heck, you weren't—" Miley's dad began.

They both spun around in alarm when they heard loud squealing, and a moment later Lilly catapulted herself at Oliver. "Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!"

"I know!" he said, starstruck. "I kissed Hannah Montana!"

"You kissed _Miley_!" she cried excitedly.

"_I know_!" he replied, surpassing her level of excitement.

"You kissed ma baby girl!" Robby Ray interrupted.

"Gotta go-bye!" the two said, rushing off backstage and outside.


	5. Chapter 5

Hannah finished her concert and was disappointed to find that her two best friends had high-tailed it home; the two people she needed to talk to _most_.

"Hey, darlin', great concert," said Robbie Ray. "Why the long face?" Miley considered his trustworthiness.

"Boy trouble or friend trouble?" he guessed.

"Both," Miley answered glumly, taking off her wig.

"Oh no, Lily-friend trouble?"

"No, Oliver."

"Well, how about the boy trouble?"

"Oliver."

"He sure gets around."

"That's just it. For the past couple of days I've been trying to figure out if I like him or not, you know, _that_ way. And I was wondering if he felt the same."

"What did you decide?"

"Well, obviously I decided I do kinda like him. And then I—" she trailed off.

"Yeah, I know. Whole country knows."

"Exactly! I need to talk to him and see if he thinks I was just being Hannah Montana pop star—or if I was Miley when I kissed him."

"And now he's nowhere to be found?"

"Yup."

"Well, Oliver's a good kid. But he's also a guy: if he thought that kiss was awkward because you're such good friends, he might had skedaddled because he felt weird about it."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"_But_," he went on, "he also might have been hoping for something like that to happen between you two, possibly not so publicly, only he's run off because he has to sort out what he's feeling, and he's nervous to find out if you feel the same."

Miley looked hopeful.

"I'd advise you to seek him out first thing tomorrow morning."

"Thanks, daddy," she said. "I will."

♥♥♥

The next morning Miley opened the newspaper and saw a front-page color picture of herself and Oliver kissing.

"Had a good night?" Jackson asked, walking by.

"We look so hot together!" Miley exclaimed, still staring at the picture and ignoring her brother.

"Whoa, how much did you pay him to do that?" Jackson asked, doing a double take and recognizing Oliver. Miley glared and swatted at him with her rolled-up newspaper.

"The real question," she said in a business-like manner, putting on her shoes and heading for the door, "is what it's going to cost me to get him to do a repeat performance."


	6. Chapter 6

a/n: hey I just realized that I've been spelling Robby and Lilly's names wrong for like...weeks--sorry! I'll be going through and fixing that later this week--thanks for reading! make sure to review, it makes me happy :)

---------------------

She found him at the beach, sitting at Rico's, surrounded by people. They were all clamoring to talk to him.

'Amazing,' she thought, ironically. 'The one time I absolutely need to talk to him and he's inaccessible. What inopportune timing for popularity to strike.'

She stood at a distance, frantically brainstorming ideas to get him alone.

Suddenly it hit her.

Or rather she remembered the rolled-up newspaper in her hand. She grinned at it consideringly.

♥♥♥

"Oliver Oken—HOW DARE YOU?" Miley wasn't yelling into a bullhorn, but for all the noise she was making, she may as well have been. "I can't believe you're leading all these people on—you're _dating_ Hannah Montana?" She waved her newspaper high over her head and worked furiously to keep from smiling: every girl in the crowd looked disgusted and was talking angrily with her friends as they left.

"_And_ she's a horrible kisser on top of that!" All the guys left too, having been convinced that Hannah Montana was nothing special.

Oliver spluttered ineffectually, trying to convince his entourage to reassemble.

It was a full minute before he was able to bring himself to look at Miley and talk to her.

"What was all that about?" he finally demanded, jumping off his stool and stalking towards her.

"Oliver, don't be mad," she said, pleading innocent.

"Don't be _mad_?" he echoed in disbelief. "Miley, those guys—those _girls_—" He shook his head, still astounded.

"What do you need all those other girls for?" she asked, trying to keep her tone light.

"I mean, come on, that's the most attention I've gotten from girls in like...forever…"

"No," she shook her head, taking a step towards him and taking his hand. "What do you need all those _other_ girls for?" she looked meaningfully at him, no trace of a smile on her face.

He stared blankly for a moment.

"Oh," he said simply. Then, "_Oh_."

"I'm sorry," she said suddenly. "I know this could be so weird because we're such good friends—"

"Or," he interrupted, smiling, "it might be weird because you're such a bad kisser."

A smile broke across her face and she started laughing, feeling happiness and relief bubble up within her.

He grinned at her and leaned forward to kiss her. She put an arm around his neck and leaned in.

"So," she said teasingly, "_am_ I a bad kisser?"

"I, uh, don't know. I wasn't really paying attention…"

"Well we can't have that…"

Lilly observed her two best friends from afar.

"Well done, well done. Lilly the Amazing has once again make the world a better place for LOOOOVE!"

♥♥♥ The End ♥♥♥


End file.
